Is Steve Jobs the new Truman Capote? Ever since the pioneering genius behind Apple and Pixar passed away last year, Hollywood types have been jostling to make a film about him, just as we saw multiple biopics of the "In Cold Blood" writer a few years ago, with "Capote" and "Infamous." And indeed, one of them is already in front of cameras, with the unlikely casting of Ashton Kutcher as the polo-necked techno-billionaire. But a far more prestigious project is gearing up, and it's just landed what many would think of as the perfect screenwriter for the job.
A press release from Sony, per /Film, among others, announces that the studio has, after rumors of his involvement for many months, landed Aaron Sorkin, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of "The Social Network," to write their own Jobs biopic, entitled simply "Steve Jobs" which will be based on the biography by Walter Isaacson. The film marks something of a homecoming for Sorkin: one of the producers is Scott Rudin, who was behind "The Social Network," and it's shepherded by studio boss Amy Pascal, who brought the writer on to "Moneyball," which saw Sorkin pick up his second Oscar nomination earlier in the year. The writer also had a personal connection to his subject, having once been asked by Jobs to write a Pixar movie, which sadly never came to pass.
Right now, the film doesn't have any other talent attached, but with Sorkin involved, you can be sure that big-name directors and stars will have their eye on the project for some time. It's possible, of course, that the Kutcher-topped film, which has an obvious head start, could put paid to this, but given the minimal pedigree of that film, we're not sure Sony are sweating it too much. There's no timeline on the project, but given that Sorkin's likely got a few months off from his imminent HBO series "The Newsroom," we imagine he'll be getting right on this one.